Ireland entered this years World Cup with five of the 31 man squad born outside Ireland. While Jamie Heaslip and Jordi Murphy were both born abroad to Irish parents, Jared Payne, Richardt Strauss and Nathan White only came to these shores in recent years.
Rugby has become a global game with national lines becoming blurred in the international game. New Zealand have regularly profiteered from taking the best players from the Pacific Islands and it is a trend were are beginning to see in Europe. Josh Strauss became eligible to play for Scotland only days before his made his debut against Japan.
Argentina are the only side in the tournament to have all their players born at home, while over a third of Samoa's squad were born abroad.
South African born players are in half of the squads at the tournament not including the Springboks, whilst 13 countries who are not taking part in the World Cup are represented by players born in those countries. This includes Murphy who was born in Barcelona and Heaslip who was born in Israel.
Betway have produced an infographic that makes interesting reading on the globalisation of the game
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